Inclusion and the Cash Crunch
How can we be ready when the axe begins to fall?
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It is inevitable that the crisis on Wall Street will trickle down to state and local communities with cuts to education and human service programs a likely scenario. How can we be ready when the axe begins to fall? A couple of pro-active ideas occur to me especially as they relate to young children with disabilities, their parents and the front-line teachers and specialists who serve them.
- Get the data that demonstrate positive outcomes and cost effectiveness of prevention, intervention and professional development programs and translate them into user-friendly language and products. (See for instance Synthesis Findings on Early Childhood Inclusion)
- Mobilize alliances of parents and professionals who can team up to make the case to legislators.
- Develop cross-sector approaches to solve educational and human service challenges that offer cost savings through leveraged resources. These initiatives might better withstand cuts, especially if the plan has an evaluation component and has a solid base of support across multiple agencies and constituent groups
Related links:
RAND Study Provides Primer for Using Economics to Help Guide Early Childhood Policy InitiativesThe Economics of Early Childhood Policy: What the Dismal Science Has to Say About Investing in Children
by M. Rebecca Kilburn, Lynn A. Karoly:
What ideas do you have for the budget battles ahead?
